MCC Day 60 – Commissioner Lucki Cross Examination Revelations

In my piece yesterday, I noted how Comm. Lucki was able to answer questions at length, and with reference to specific details, in contrast to the answers of the RCMP’s NS Commanding Officer Lee Bergerman. Today we saw a different version of that kind of answer from Comm. Lucki. She was still answering at length, but was more often unable to provide details on elements of the RCMP operations, which are all ultimately under her command. Many of the questions were relating to operational details of the RCMP response to the events of the mass casualty, as well as the RCMP’s ability to adopt recommendations made by previous outside reviews from third parties. Comm. Lucki seemed less aware than one might expect from the leader of the RCMP about the progress of recommendations from the review of the death of Colten Boushie, and the MacNeil Report from the Justin Bourque shootings in Moncton. This is all important for two reasons. One is simply that the MCC is going to be making a series of recommendations, and the RCMP will no doubt be the subject of many of those. So, it is helpful for the Commissioners to know whether the RCMP has a good or bad track record of incorporating recommendations, and if the track record is bad, what oversight protections must be in place to ensure that the forthcoming recommendations will be implemented in a timely fashion. The second reason is to examine the culture of the RCMP itself to determine whether it is an organization that is capable of contrition and change, and thus can be trusted to regain the trust of Nova Scotians and remain as the de facto provincial police force. There was a mixed bag of examples from Comm. Lucki’s testimony today that leave the answers to those questions unclear. At the end of her testimony, Comm. Lucki did apologize on behalf of the RCMP, for the force not being all that the public expected and needed. This was not an emotional apology from the Commissioner, but (in part because it was not emotionally driven) struck me as sincere. The MCC Commissioners had a few questions for Comm. Lucki. Commissioner Fitch asked about how it was possible to change the RCMP without changing the culture, to which Comm. Lucki said that the culture is changing, and that change is being measured in detail through such things as detailed annual member surveys, code of conduct case analysis, and exit interviews with departing members. Commissioner Stanton asked about the structure of contract policing, and noted that there have been reports, such as the 2007 Brown Report, as well as more recent efforts in BC and Alberta to reassess their contract relationship with the RCMP. Comm. Lucki was quite interested in this area of questioning, and was naturally determined to persuade us that contract policing was sustainable, with some reform. The biggest news of the day may have come in the final moments, when Chief Commissioner MacDonald implored Commissioner Lucki to be a courageous champion for whatever recommendations emerge from the MCC process. One might see this as a sign that the MCC is not going to recommend that the province form their own police force and end the contract with the RCMP. That may be reading too much into the remarks, but that is how they sounded to me. The MCC will be back tomorrow with Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella. He will be testifying starting at 2pm.